Question: Is decent living enough for attaining a wider consciousness, or is any occult, spiritual, or religious training necessary?
Baba: No general rule or process can be laid down for the attainment of the ultimate reality or, as you term it, “wider consciousness.” Every individual has got to work out his own salvation, and for that matter, he himself has got to create and choose the “path,” which is mostly determined and expressed by the collective force and momentum of impressions [sanskaras] acquired during previous lives.
The panacea the world knows of, the so-called religions for the guidance of humanity, do not go a long way in solving the problem. As time goes on, the founder, the one who provided the motivating force, is thrown and relegated more and more into the background of time and obscurity. In the aftermath of his manifestations, either a religion or an organization gradually loses its glamor and attractiveness, and a mental revolt takes place against the old order of things. A demand is created for something more tangible, substantial, and practical, through which one may learn to live the true life, the life of the spirit; and you know that supply is in proportion to demand.
To say that only “decent living” is the way of attaining “wider consciousness” is to give only one side of the picture. What you are today is the result of your decent and indecent living as well. Occult, spiritual, and religious training serves merely as means to an end and is a condition precedent to entering the Path; but the moment one has the contact of a Perfect Master, no such disciplinary process is necessary.
The only thing required is complete surrenderance to his supreme will and unquestioning willingness and attitude of mind to suffer and accept things as they come.
–Silent Teachings of Meher Baba, compiled and edited by Naosherwan Anzar, p135